System of wrapping articles



Sept. 29, 1942. w. RASCH ETAL 9 SYSTEM OF WRAPPING ARTICLES Filed Dec. 11, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig.5.

1 firm/7hr w. 'Rasch HJallengi'ei 'L Sept. 29, 1942. w. RASCH ETAL 2,297,432

SYSTEM OF WRAPPING ARTICLES Filed Dec. 11, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Sept. 29, 1942 SYSTEM OF WRAPPING ARTICLES Wiihelm Rasch and Hermann Ballerstein, Wernigerode, Germany; Custodian vested in the Alien Property.

Application December 11, 1939, Serial No. 308,744 In Germany December 30, 1938 4 Claims.

This invention relates to a system of wrapping articles having a substantially planar bottom surfaces, such as pralines, or similar articles.

It is an object of the present invention to facilitate the wrapping of pralines and similar articles of varying dimensions.

Another object of the invention is to provide means for ensuring a neat appearance of the finish-wrapped articles, irrespective of differences in their dimensions and shapes.

Still another object of the invention is to provide means for saving foil material in the wrapping operation.

With this and further objects in view, as may become apparent from the within disclosures, the invention consists not only in the structures herein pointed out and illustrated by the drawings, but includes further structures coming within the scope of what hereinafter may be claimed.

The character of the invention, however, may be best understood by reference to certain of its structural forms, as illustrated by the accompanying drawings in which:

Figs. 1, 2 and 3 are plan, side and front views of a praline having a plane bottom surface.

Fig. 4,- is a diagrammatical view of a device for carrying out the first step of the wrapping process in which the wrapping sheet or foil is wrapped around the praline in the form of a hose.

Fig. 5 is a similar diagrammatical view showing a device including two horizontally acting folding members, in a vertical section.

Fig. 6 is a plan View of Fig. 5.

Fig. '7 is a diagrammatical view of a device comprising two vertically acting folding members.

Fig. 8 is a vertical section of a brush type mould including a stamp.

Fig. 9 is a section of the same device, at right angles to the section according to Fig. 8.

Fig. 10 is a vertical section of a device including rotary brushes serving as smoothing organs.

Similar reference numerals denote similar parts in the different views.

It is known to pack or wrap pralines in this manner that a foil is at first placed around the praline in the form of a bell, chiefly with the aid of a brush mould, whereupon the ends of the foil extending downwardly beyond the bottom of the praline are folded together on the bottom. Hereby, an irregular concentration of foil material is usually produced on the bottom of the foil. Also, it may occur that the inner side of the foils is exposed at some points. It is also known to wrap pralines of prismatic shape in this 5 manner that the foil is at first wrapped around the article in the form of a hose or tube, while the two lateral ends of the tubular foil are then folded in a similar manner as it is usual with large prismatic parcels or packings. In this manner a regularly formed wrapping of a good appearance is obtained, and foil material is saved.

The last mentioned wrapping method offers difliculties, however, if the pralines of one series differ in size, as it is the case, for instance, with articles made in an immersing or coating process, or if the articles are of a round or other nonrectangular cross section. In this case the folding tools have to be adjusted to fit the largest possible dimensions of the articles while in case of smaller pieces occurring in the manufacture there remains a certain clearance between the folding tools and the ends of the praline which prevents a tight and neat folding over of the foil ends. Also, with round articlesthe lateral folding operation is diflicult to be carried out.

For the above mentioned reasons, articlesoccurring in different dimensions have not been wrapped so far in this manner that the closing folds were made on surfaces at right angles to the bottom surface.

The present invention now provides a method of wrapping articles having a substantially plane bottom or similar articles having a shape differing from arectangular body and/or being made in an immersing or coating process, such as, pralines. According to the invention the wrap-- ping foil or sheet is wrapped around the article in the form of a hose and after this wrapping process the wrapped article is passed through a mould or mould channel formed of brushes.

As aforementioned, a process is already known in which the brushing operation is one of the first steps in the wrapping process and followed by further steps in which the free ends of the hose are folded over by separate folding members. In the process according to the present invention, on the other hand, the step of passing the articles through the brush mould is inserted at the end of the wrapping operation and substantially after the lateral ends or at least a part thereof have been folded over. This method of using brush moulds is new and useful; Its advantage resides in the fact that the envelope which due to the differences in the shape and size of the single pralines is at first of mean appearance, is applied smoothly, thus creating a, good appearance. On the other hand, foil material is saved compared to the methods in which the closure folds are made at the bottom.

It was not foreseeable that the step of passing the wrapped articles through a brush mould would have this favourable effect. In fact, the foil is only loosely applied by the wrapping tools in the case of articles differing considerably from a, rectangular shape or in case of articles at the lower limit of the range of dimensions, so that it might have been expected that the wrapping would be reopened, especially in View of the fact that the wrapping material becomes rather hard at the folds by the folding operations and, therefore, requires considerable force to be applied smoothly to the work piece.

According to a further feature of the invention, means are provided for preventing the envelope from forming a margin projecting downwardly from the bottom surface. To this end, the punch carrying the praline as it is forced through the mould may be made to have a larger supporting surface than the praline.

Advantageously the praline is guided past rotary brush rollers, by positive guiding action, after its passage through the wrapping machine. Suitable rotary brush rollers are known in the art.

For the sake of simplification of the process the end of the foil to be folded over in the last folding step may be applied by means of the brush mould r device.

Referring now to the drawings in greater detail and first to Fig. 4, item 2 is a feeding table which revolves by steps about an axis (not shown) and in the recesses 3 of which the articles to be wrapped, such as, pralines l, are fed to the first partial device, Fig. 4. The pralines are lifted out of the recesses 3, by means of a stamp or plunger 4 and forced through the aperture 5 in a plate 6. The wrapping foil 1 has been placed across the aperture 5 of .the plate 6 and is now engaged, mainly in its center, by passage of the praline I. On further raising of the praline l and wrapping foil I the same comes into the reach of arms 8 and 9. The praline together with its wrapping foil is placed between the two arms, whereby the wrapping foil is wrapped around the upper side of the praline, with its two ends projecting downwardly. Now, slide members It! and I I underneath the arms 8 and 9 advance alternately towards the center of the device, thereby wrapping the free ends of the foil around the bottom i of the praline. The two ends thus overlap each other and the foil surrounds the praline in the form of a hose.

Now, the gripping members 8, 9 which are mounted for revolving motion on the machine, are swung to the next station, shown in Figs. 5 and 6. Continuing the wrapping operation, the stamp I2 is at first raised to engage the overlapping ends of the foil, so as to hold the same in position during the further operations.

The open ends of the tubular foil are now partly closed, by means of two horizontal folding members I3 and 14 which are advanced towards the praline one after the other, for partly folding over the free ends of the foil. To this end, the

folding members l3 and M are formed with round recesses 15 and I6 permitting these members to be advanced into engagement with the praline without being hampered by the gripper arms 8 and 9 which are still holding the praline. The approximate contours of the right hand side of the foil 1 after operation of the folding member 14 is indicated by the dot and dash lines in Fig. 6.

The praline leaves the device shown in Figs. 5 and 6 with a projecting point or tip 1, 1" on the upper and lower side at both ends of the praline. These projecting ends are now put on the praline by means of the device shown in Fig. '7. To this end, two folding members I! and 18 are provided for action in a substantially vertical plane. At first, the lower folding member I1 is raised to fold the lower projecting point I of the foil upwardly, then the folding member [8 moves downward to wrap over the only remaining tips 1''. The folding member I8 is so shaped that it surrounds the major portion of the upper side of the praline, in its operative position, and thus produces a contact on all sides. It has to be dimensioned so that it can be placed even on the largest pralines within the tolerance. As a result, the wrapping sheet or foil cannot be pressed on smoothly by the folding member I8 to the pralines which have turned out smaller. Therefore, the major portion of wrapped pralines leaves this device with the wrapping foil being less smooth in appearance. A rolling operation cannot be used for the purpose of smoothing the foil, since the articles to be wrapped are assumed to have a shape not generatel by rotation.

Now, according to an important feature of the invention, a uniform, good appearance is imparted to the articles leaving the wrapping machine by urging the wrapped articles finally through a resilient matrix or mould, consisting, for instance, of brushes, as indicated in Figs. 8 and 9.

The device shown in Figs. 8 and 9 also effects the folding on of the last free points by means of the resilient matrix, so that the folding member l8 shown in Fig. '7 may be dispersed with.

In the device shown in Figs. 8 and 9 a punch is by means of its plane upper surface 20 presses the praline through the mould 2| which is formed with brushes or hair pencils 22 or a similar resilient lining at its inner faces. The projecting points 1 of the wrapping foil are wrapped over downwardly and the wrapping foil is rendered smooth on the whole upper surface of the praline.

Fig. 10 illustrates the application of rotary brush rollers 23, 23', between which the praline is passed through after its passage through the wrapping device, for smoothing the front ends. These rollers may also serve for applying the last projecting point or points of the foil.

Our novel wrapping system permits a reduction of the required amount of foil material by 15 to 28 percent, depending on the shape of the articles, over the amount of foil material required if the foil would be closed at the bottom of the article. Moreover, the folding at the front ends yields a relatively tight closure.

It will be appreciated that the devices for folding the foil at the front ends of the articles are substantially the same as those serving for wrapping egg-shaped or similar articles having a shape generated by rotation.

The method and apparatus of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to specific embodiments. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not limited by such specific reference but is broader in scope and capable of other embodiments than those specifically described and illustrated in the drawings.

We claim: A process of wrapping articles having at least one substantially plane surface, comprising the steps of wrapping a sheet around the article in the form of a hose, folding over the ends of the hose at surfaces of the article transverse to said plane surface and forcing the wrapped article through a mould channel the inner surfaces of which are formed by brushes effective along a closed line.

2. A process of wrapping articles having at least one substantially plane surface, comprising the steps of wrapping a sheet around the article in the form of a hose, folding over the ends of the hose at surfaces of the article transverse to said plane surface and forcing the wrapped article through a mould channel the inner surfaces of which are formed by a resilient material.

3. A process of wrapping articles having at least one substantiall plane surface, comprising the steps of wrapping a sheet around the article in the form of a hose, folding over the ends of the hose at surfaces of the article transverse to said plane surface, forcing the wrapped article through a mould channel lined by brushes and moving the brush lining in a direction contrary to the direction of movement of the article.

4. A process of wrapping articles having at least one substantially plane surface, comprising the steps of wrapping a sheet around the article in the form of a hose, holding over the ends of the hose at surfaces of the article transverse to said plane surface, one tip on each side being left projecting and unfolded, and forcing the wrapped article through a mould channel the inner surfaces of which are formed by brushes in such a direction that said unfolded tips are folded onto the article.

WILHELM RASCH.

HERMANN BALLERSTEIN. 

